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Today terrorists have stuck London. You will, by now, have heard\nall the details from elsewhere (Matt has a nice take on the\nsubject), so I won't recount them again. Let me just add my voice\nto all those others and say that the victims have my sympathy and that\nI'm very proud of the way my country has been dealing with it.

\n

I had taken the day off thanks to a wonderful screw up from\nTesco. My old Renault has been getting on a bit (its has a petrol\nengine and 125,000 miles on the clock), was coming up to its MOT, and\nneeded replacement.

\n

I found a nice looking Rover on Saturday, it seduced my with its\nleather upholstery and general shineyness. Unfortunately a second look\nrevealed a large quantity of oil and gunk floating around the coolant\nsystem, which rather put the clappers on the idea of buying it.

\n

So it was back to the drawing board. Some more hunting turned up a\ncouple of promising leads and I gave the deal a ring, he promptly\nstarted listing a bunch of great sounding vehicles which would be\narriving the next day. I held off and went to have a look on my way\nhome from work.

\n

This turned out to be a wise choice, one of the cars was near\nperfect and I walked away the proud owner of a nice little Peugeot 205\nwith a diesel engine, and got a nice discount by trading in the\nRenault for far more then it was worth. I just needed insurance and\ntax and then I could drive her away.

\n

Sorting out the insurance was easy enough, or so I thought. I rang\nTesco, told them I'd bought a new car, and gave them the details. Then\nI asked them to send the paperwork to my office. I leave the flat\nbefore the postman arrives, so getting the paperwork at the office\nwould let me drop by the dealer on my way home.

\n

Wednesday morning came and the paperwork duly arrived. Then I\nlooked at it. Commences: 06/07/05 17:00 hours. OK, good so\nfar. Expires: 06/07/05 noon. Uh Oh.

\n

So I had insurance that was valid for a grand total of minus five\nhours. I rang Tesco again, and they agreed to send out replacement\ndocuments and a covering fax explaining the situation.

\n

Lunchtime came and I trundled down to the post office, which\nwouldn't accept the certificate even with the fax. I hate\nbureaucracy.

\n

So mid-afternoon I get struck by a thought and promptly ring up\nTesco once more. Naturally they had posted the replacement replacement\ndocumentation to the default address on my account, and not to my\noffice. Oh joy. \"Anthony? Do you mind if I take one of my days of\nholiday tomorrow?\"

\n

And so it was that I was still at home when I heard about the\nexplosions in London. At first the news was suggesting that something\nmajor had gone wrong with the power system, but it wasn't long before\nit was clear that the explosions were deliberate.

\n

Then came the news that Swindon railway station had been closed. I\nummed and erred for a few minutes before deciding that sitting around\nat home would drive me stir crazy and I was damned if I was going to\nlet a bunch of extremists muck up my life (Tesco isn't a bunch of\nextremists, if they were they probably wouldn't have made such a\nstupid mistake.).

\n

On to the bus I hopped and I arrived at the town centre shortly\nafter. I took the usual route under Flemming Way, up The Parade and\nalong Regent Street towards the post office. Then I saw a bunch of\npolice and rent-a-cops from various shops running around setting up\nstripy tape and evacuating the area. It was another bomb scare, this\ntime at Lloyd's\nBank.

\n

The Post Office was a couple of streets over, so it was safe from\nevacuation and I managed to fork out the �90+ for 6 months road\ntax. That is the downside of diesel cars - they have a low horsepower\nfor the engine size, but tax is based on engine size and not\nhorsepower. So my car might only be marginally nippier then the\nRenault it replaces, but it has a 1.8 liter engine.

\n

When I came out of the Post Office the area being evacuated was\nstarting to spread. Being unable to walk down Regent Street I headed\nfor the Brunel Centre (which runs along Regent Street). My bank was on\nthe other side and I wanted to pay a cheque in (it seems I managed to\noverpay my soliciter when I was buying this flat and they'd issued a\nrefund).

\n

Unfortunately, no sooner had I walked in then I was asked to leave -\nthey were being evacuated too.

\n

I ended up taking the long way around to get back to the bus\nstation (the direct route was blocked by vast swathes of red and white\ntape).

\n

After a spot of lunch I drove up to Faringdon\nto exchange cars. This was amazingly quick and ten minutes later I was\non my way home again - and trying to get used to the way the new car\nhandled. This took some time since I'd only ever driven three cars\nbefore:

\n
    \n
  1. My driving instructor's (not since I learned to drive)
    2. \n
  2. My Renault
    3. \n
  3. My Dad's old Peugeot 405 (twice … and it has a turbo\ncharger and power steering)
    4. \n
\n

… but I was reasonably comfortable with it by the time I got\nhome. Its wonderful having an ariel again, I don't have to switch\nradio stations 10 minutes outside Swindon now.

\n

I'm actually writing this entry a few days after the data at the\ntop, so I have the advantage of being about to find out exactly what\nwas going on in town. Thankfully, both\nalerts turned out to be false alarms, turning out to be birthday\npresents and sweets!

\n

Swindon's alerts may have turned out to be false alarms, but London\nwasn't so lucky. The explosions show off some of the very worst\naspects of the human race, but they have also brought out some of the\nvery best. A couple of examples from Radio 2: A nurse, in London to\nvisit her father, abandoned her plans in order to help out at the\nnearest hospital, and a 92 year old lady who drove ambulances during\nThe Second World War, marched down to her nearest hospital and started\napplying bandages where they were needed. The way people have come\ntogether in the face of adversity really bolsters my faith in\nhumanity. To these heroes and all others —\nthank-you.

","frontmatter":{"slug":"life-goes-on.html","title":"Life goes on despite interruptions","url":"/blog/2005/07/07/life-goes-on.html","date":"07 July 2005"}}},"pageContext":{"url":"/blog/2005/07/07/life-goes-on.html"}},"staticQueryHashes":["2817829322","3649515864"]}